Me, The Bay and the Game

I was just 22 then and working as a clerk at the CN Telecom office on Granville in Vancouver. The game started in the morning before lunch as I recall because of the obvious time differences. By game 8 Canadian nationalism had kicked in and everyone was talking about ‘the game’. The problem was that it was a work day and our particular company boss was not about to let a hockey game get in the way of ‘work’. No radio or TV allowed.

Fortunately, the guy I reported to was a fan and he could see the angst at missing the game all over my face. In those days, one did not call in sick…it wasn’t honourable. When I told him I needed to go the bank during my break he kind of knew it was a stretch. But he let me go anyways. (thanks Wally)

And ‘go’ I did….straight to the 6th floor of THE BAY Granville street department store where I was sure a TV would be on somewhere in the appliance/furniture area. It was just starting the 3rd period when I got there and as the game edged on the crowds started to gather and the Salespeople started turning on more TV’s to accommodate the growing fans. I doubt many TV’s were going to be sold at this point.

Before too long the area was ‘packed’ with fans. When Henderson scored the place erupted and strangers hugged and shook hands (this was before high-fives) and cried and cheered and cheered some more. I can’t recall another time in my life since then that I shared so much emotion with so many strangers as that day. Truly was a remarkable and very memorable day in my life. It was also clear that I was not the only person skipping out of work!